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Segunbagicha

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Segunbagicha

Segunbagicha (Bengali: সেগুনবাগিচা, romanizedShegunbagicha, lit.'Garden of the Teaks') is an upscale residential, administrative, commercial, and institutional neighbourhood in south-central Dhaka, Bangladesh. The neighbourhood is an important area of Dhaka featuring a large number of government and residential complexes. It acts as a bridge between the major thanas of Ramna, Shahbagh, Dhanmondi, Paltan and Motijheel, and is located at the crossroads of Ramna, Shahbag and Paltan thanas.

Segunbagicha is a centre of government office building and institutions including the headquarters of The Directorate General of National Security Intelligence, Anti-Corruption Commission (commonly known as duduk; দুদক), Motsho Bhobon (building of Department of Fisheries), Bangladesh Secretariat, the International Mother Language Institute, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, the Public Works Department, the Bangladesh Department of Architecture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as several tax zones.

During the British Bengal era, two English officers, Captain Graham and Colonel Stecky built a garden in the area. Among all the plants in the garden, there were numerous teak trees, called segun (pronounced as shegun) in Bengali. The neighbourhood got its name for the teak trees it contained. The responsibility of the area was then handed over to the municipality after the officers moved to another part of Dacca. The municipality then decided to cut down the trees.

In the late 1940s, Segunbagicha was a desolate and solitary area, located on the outskirts of the Dacca city. It was sparsely populated, but it hosted mostly Hindu intellects and used to be a residential colony where many educated doctors, lawyers, teachers and other intellects resided. However, Segunbagicha quickly became occupied due to the influx of migrants. The first Chinese restaurant in Dhaka (then Dacca), "Café China", was set up in the neighbourhood.

According to Bangladeshi writer Qazi Anwar Hossain, there were only a few low-rise buildings in the sparsely populated Segunbagicha in the 1950s. The area also hosted a huge swamp.

Muhammad Ibrahim, a Bangladeshi physician, who later founded the Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation in Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders at Shahbagh, set up a tin-shed out-patients clinic in Segunbagicha in the 1950s to fight diabetes.

When the country's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was appointed as the first Bengali chairman of the Pakistan Tea Board, he moved to the erstwhile 115 Segunbagicha. After Mujib was arrested, his family moved to the erstwhile 76, Segunbagicha. After he was released, him and his family moved to Dhanmondi.

Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, the primary cultural centre of Bangladesh was set up in 1974 in Segunbagicha.

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